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It's a Tough Life for a Cyclist, On or Off the Bike

The owner of this Trek mountain bike will be surprised to find his ride home out of service.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The owner of this bicycle, locked to a rack on Hill street, probably plans on riding home at some point today. What he doesn't yet know is that his ride has been disabled, thanks to the sloppy work of a hurried UPS driver. Even worse, he'll most likely never know what happened.

This Trek mountain bike was locked up to a bike rack on Hill street this morning at roughly 10:30am, when a UPS truck pulled up to the adjacent red curb. The driver hopped out, delivered a few packages, and then got back into the truck. Pulling out he paid no attention to the swing of the truck's rear end, only caring not to hit the car parked in front.

The impact to the wheel spun the bike around the rack, but the driver didn't notice the impact or the man yelling to him that he had hit something.

Cyclists face enough peril on the street, so one would like to think that they'd at least be safe once properly locked up at their destination. In at least this case, though, that wasn't to be.